10.12.06 work work work

Things are off to a roaring start this week!

Classes are 3.5 hours long.  Seminars are 3.5 hours long.  We had two classes Monday, one seminar and one class Tuesday, one class and a 4.5 hour study group meeting Wednesday, and finally have today off.  Friday is another 2 class day.  Each lunchtime, I read while I eat, and then when the day is done, I eat dinner and then study until 1AM.  I slept in today to catch up on sleep a bit, that felt very very nice.  Reba is being great, really supportive, she’s taking care of all the domestic stuff while I’m in this cram mode.  It’s pretty hard to get time to run to the store or make a healthy meal when you’re so busy, so I’m extra grateful.  Of course, she just got a job so this will all cease shortly!  She went on just one interview and immediately got an offer.  This simply adds further credence to my theory that “everybody likes Reba”.  She got a research and lab management job with the Oxford University Radiation Oncology and Biology department.  These folks are working on experimental breast cancer cures, but once again, I really don’t actually understand what it is that Reba does.   

 

Electronic Note Taking

Despite the fact that Josh continues to gleefully point out to me that “in addition to reading and homework, note taking is also optional in grad school. Just ask your profs”, I plan to rely heavily on  my note taking method in the learning process this year. 

I use a fairly integrated system consisting of Microsoft Onenote, Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Tasks to manage time-lines, course-work, notes and general information.  Most people are very familiar with Calendar and Tasks, but if you haven't yet used Onenote, it is worth a moment's description.

Onenote allows quick, autosaving note taking.  It provides collapsible hierarchical bullet trees and a customisable flagging feature that makes it easy to group and locate important note taking elements such as questions, important points, assignments, and "to do" items.  This is very helpful when reviewing for tests, referring to something from the reading, searching for things you flagged as unclear during the reading, pulling up past class notes, or simply capturing something important the instructor said on the spot.  Onenote provides simple drawing features, which can be helpful with diagramming.  Onenote also automatically creates Outlook tasks, and plugs directly into Microsoft Sharepoint, which we also use at the school.  Onenote's search functions are particularly useful when combing through an entire term's worth of notes.  And, Onenote is a great way to bring together disparate electronic data... articles, power point presentations, cases, etc.  If you hadn’t guessed, we have plenty of these.

It's nothing earthshaking, but the system I use is as follows:

• When reading in preparation for classes, I take notes using Onenote, flagging any concerns or questions I might have for the instructor.
• During class, I am then easily able to refer to and update the notes from my preparation with lecture points and clarifications, and also have any questions or concerns ready at my fingertips.
• After class, I am able to share notes with fellow students, study groups etc.
• Finally, before a test, I am able to quickly and easily pull important review points from one place.  This part is really cool.

The electronic note-taking issue relative to my professors is not as bad as I thought it would be based on class #1.  Out of 4 instructors, their responses have been:

#1 – “No way, no how, uh-uh.  Nope.”

#2 – “I don’t care, but my boss said I can’t.  I’ll check with him again.”

#3 – “I’d prefer not, but if you must, then OK.”

#4 – “That’s very polite of you to ask first.  Yes of course you may.”

Hehe.  I think that I may have learned a bit of an object lesson here… you may notice how they are being cooler about electronic note taking each time I ask a different guy.  My method has been changing, I think that may have a lot to do with it. 

With Prof #1, I just started taking notes in class with my computer.  He stopped the class, told me to close my laptop, and told me to take notes on the handouts with a pencil.  That was embarrassing, especially since it was class one day one hour one!  I guess that I attract attention everywhere I go.    I spoke to him at the break, and told him something stupid like “I take lots of notes with my computer”…  but by this time, I would have had to be quite a salesman (or liar) to convince him to change his mind, especially after he showed his cards in front of the whole class.  No dice.  I’ll be printing notes and retyping in for the rest of the term.

With Prof #2, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and mentioned that note taking was a big part of my study habits.

With Prof #3, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and briefly explained my process above.  I also promised that I would never surf the web, look at email, or check an IM ever in his class. 

With Prof #4, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and briefly explained my process above.  I also promised that I would never surf the web, look at email, or check an IM ever in his class.  I also explicitly asked him if I may have “his permission” to take notes in class on my laptop.

Maybe #4 was an anomaly, but I seemed to strike a nerve with the permission bit, because it hit pay-dirt… of course, I still have #5 and 6 to contend with.  We’ll see.

 

The I Always Wondered How That Works Factor

I have to say that so far, every single course and every single reading so far has been interesting, and has brought me some degree of what I call the “I Always Wondered How That Works Factor”.  I.A.W.H.T.W.F. for me is when I’m reading, learning, listening, whatever, and find myself saying, “wow, that’s cool, I always wondered about that”.  That makes me feel really good, for whatever reason.  Another cool aspect of this course-work is there’s a lot of class discussion.  While this seems to get easily sidetracked, it also is a neat opportunity to share your ideas and get some ideas from others.  The biggest bummer from all of this so far is the crystal clear indication that I will never be able to spend all the time learning each subject that I would like to spend.  I’m going to have to dig deep within myself to be a successful student, but that will still only give me a skimming of the material.  That’s what I get for doing a 1 year MBA.  Honestly, I would have gone to Oxford if it had been a 1, 2 or 3 year MBA, just because I’m into this place.  But, 1 year is the only option currently so I’ll just have to deal.

 

Matriculation Rising

Saturday is Matriculation.  This is where all the new entrants to the University put on their subfusc, sit in the Sheldonian Theatre, and get read a bunch of medieval “welcome to the university” stuff in Latin.  I’m super totally down, but it’s a 7:30 AM Saturday type of deal, and that part will suck.

 

Rowing?

Anybody who’s heard more about Oxford than the preceding 6 letter word (that’s o-x-f-o-r-d Josh) knows about the rowing fetish.  There is probably a big long story about how this came about, but I don’t know what it is, and if I’m going to be researching anything this morning, it’s going to be Financial Reporting!  The upshot is that it’s a big deal, and there are a zillion levels of Oxford crews available so that you can get your row on at Oxford.  I am attempting to join something called a 2nd and 3rd Novice Crew, which is for bottom feeders like me who’ve never even sat in a crew boat (probably the wrong word for this type of boat, they’re probably “slingers” or “stickey-horses” or “queens-heads” or whatever else medieval goofball name these people came up with for them).  This should be entertaining.

 

Special to Frank and Josh: any comments posted about my ass sinking, punching through, or capsizing the crew boat are such cheap shots that you will get negative points for wasting cyberspace by even taking the time to type them in.  Fair warning.